Fundraising Performance vs. Fundraiser Performance—Part 2

This is Part 2. Without reading Part 1, this column won’t be of much use to you.

Here’s where we left off:

Measuring fundraising results is different than measuring the fundraiser’s performance. And it’s a distinction that makes a very big difference!

Fundraising performance belongs to the entire institution. Neither the fundraiser nor the development office is solely accountable for the institution’s fundraising performance.

As you read in Part 1, lots of things affect the institution’s fundraising performance and results. For example:

Quality of program/service/product.

Engagement of CEO, board, and board members in the process of relationship building and soliciting.

Policies related to board member performance.

Screening process for board member candidates.

Operating as a donor-centered organization.

And so much more.

I actually think that measuring the institution’s fundraising performance is easier to do than measure the fundraiser’s performance. I think that defining measures, establishing annual benchmarks, and reviewing progress and results is a major conversation that staff, development committee, and the board should have – regularly.

Here are some of my favorite quotations about measures and data. I’ve been collecting quotations since I was in high school. Quotes from novels and songs and…and quotes from business books, and still more novels!

How about using these quotes to inspire your organization to probe about the purpose of measures and which measures and the analysis of trends and their implications?

“Data itself is nothing unless one uses it as a resource from which to draw conclusions.”—Dune: The Machine Crusade, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.

“A great organization is one that delivers superior performance and makes a distinctive impact over a long period of time…In business, money is both an input (a resource for achieving greatness) and an output (a measure of greatness). In the social sectors, money is only an input, and not a measure of greatness.”—Good to Great and Good to Great and the Social Sectors, Jim Collins.

“In a metric-minded organization, it’s very tempting to focus on things that are easy to measure instead of those things that are important to measure…Numbers-based innovations are easy to sell…but numbers-based innovations are rarely home runs. They rarely cause people to look back in awe at the amazing thing they’ve done. It’s the emotional stuff – the stuff that some smart people don’t think will work – that you need to be part of.”—The Big Moo, by the Group of 33, edited by Seth Godin.

Simone P. Joyaux, ACFRE is recognized internationally as an expert in fund development, board and organizational development, strategic planning, and management. She is the founder and director of Joyaux Associates.